Walking in Wigan

Overhead view of a group dance exercise class in a community centre

Across Greater Manchester, there is a clear recognition of the importance of walking to population scale change in physical activity and there is widespread understanding of the critical role of walking - for leisure, for travel and for everyday activity.

In addition to our established Wellbeing Walks programme, Wigan Council are working hard to support people in Wigan to walk more every day.  Wigan has many greenspaces that can be explored by walking to support good health and positive wellbeing.  Working with communities we are also developing more crossing points across the borough as part of the Bee Network. This will help improve the urban walking experience, connect people in communities and encourage more people to choose to walk short, local journeys.

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Wigan and Leigh Carers Centre group walks

We support unpaid carers in the Wigan borough and wanted to encourage carers to get out and about with the person that they care for or to have a break from their caring role and meet others after a really difficult time during the pandemic.

Read more here

Active Outdoors walking programmes   Walking routes   Walking groups

Community Investment Fund grants

GM Walking has given grants to nearly 90 local voluntary and community groups with the aim of getting Greater Manchester walking. They offered the grants to support a huge range of activities that encourage people who are usually less active to start or to increase the amount they regularly walk. Almost half of the successful applications were from organisations based in the most deprived 20% of the region.

They gave a total of £6,972 to six organisations across Wigan, including to:

  • Wigan and Leigh Carers Centre to run guided mindfulness walks for carers and the people they care for
  • The Willow Project to start a walking group for young people to encourage them to use exercise to support their mental health and wellbeing
  • Leigh Neighbours Project to develop a Daily Mile route and to provide packages to local groups to enable them to get out walking
  • Community Integrated Care to set up walking groups for people with complex and profound learning disabilities, physical disabilities and mental health conditions
  • Wigan Athletic Community Trust to run a 16-week programme to encourage inactive and isolated older people to get walking
  • Wigan Borough Armed Forces HQ to run weekly walking activities to help tackle a wide range of issues experienced by military veterans and their families